Ne1L C's posts, page 12

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Ne1L C

Yus, My Dear (1976) London Weekend Sitcom

According to wikipedia there were three spinoffs of sorts:

A B'Stard Exposed (BBC1 - 30 December 1994) – Alan B'Stard MP has returned to domestic Parliament following a Welsh by-election conspicuous by the absence of any opponents. They were found after polling day at the bottom of a coal mine. B'Stard is grilled by veteran broadcaster Brian Walden and reveals his vision for 21st century Britain – including a proposal to construct a Berlin Wall-inspired, thirty-feet high, electrified border control system named, 'B'Stard's Fence'. During the interview, Alan is also tricked into revealing his plans to create his own political party and later pays for Walden's silence. It effectively ignores the last episode.

Stage show
Episode 2006: The Blair B'Stard Project – Alan B'Stard has created New Labour after making billions on Black Wednesday, installing a failed singer as prime minister and secretly running the country from his bunker at number 9 Downing Street. The show sees Alan attempting to settle a divorce from his wife while playing Al-Qaeda and the Americans off each other in the hunt for weapons of mass destruction (which are being carefully hidden by Alan). Aided by his PPS Frank, the last socialist in the Labour Party and Flora, an ex-Young Conservative turned Blairite lackey, Alan arranges the fake kidnapping of Tony Blair and the ruining of Gordon Brown in order to place himself in ultimate power. The show ends with Alan being named Lord Protector with the declaration, "And Alan takes EVERYTHING".

ALAN B'STARD'S EXTREMELY SECRET WEAPON – The stage show returns, heavily re-written in late 2006, touring into 2007. Alan is plotting to become one of a shadowy elite of politicians who control the world's oil supplies.

No2AV
In 2011, the character of Alan B'Stard, again portrayed by Rik Mayall, was used in the campaign against introducing the AV system to UK Parliamentary elections, in an official television broadcast by NOtoAV. B'Stard appears as a party leader in the near future who, at a pre-general election conference, makes ridiculous promises to the public including the abolition of all taxes and free electricity. When his aides query how they will afford such policies, B'Stard gleefully explains that he won't have to, as when he gets elected, he can go into coalition and blame all the government's failings on his partners. He adds that under AV, even if people don't vote for him he'll probably be elected anyway. The advert ends with B'Stard entering Number 10 as prime minister, accompanied by another party leader.[3]
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Ne1L C

Yus, My Dear (1976) London Weekend Sitcom

Add to that
Granville can't escape Arkwright
Jim Hacker is trapped with Humphrey and Bernard.
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Ne1L C

Yus, My Dear (1976) London Weekend Sitcom

There's an oft-mentioned theory that comedy works because of people being trapped together. Till Death Us Do Part was one excellent example. You had Alf, Elsie, Mike and Rita in one room sparking off each other.
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Ne1L C

Yus, My Dear (1976) London Weekend Sitcom

One writer had said the reason why ITV sitcoms are very rarely remembered is the lack of character development and time given to let a sitcom develop. She said, the ITV sitcom has to include a commercial break, which sometimes stops the flow of the comedy. Also it reduces the run time, back in 60s to 80s it would be around 3 minutes of commercials and of courses the gap required when the episode ends, meaning an ITV sitcom running time could be around 24 or 25 minutes.

BBC have also utilised their archive by having their UKTV commercial subsidiary as the main place for their archives, on GOLD, Drama and Yesterday.

ITV have ITV 3 and really never bothered to develop a channel of their own for their classic comedies, instead selling the rights of sitcoms to Forces TV or Talking Pictures TV.


Plus with ITV being a commercial network having a poorly made sitcom would result in less viewers and less potential revenue from advertisers.

One thing I have noticed is that some ITV sitcoms that have been released on DVD have been done by Network DVD
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maggie-Her-Complete-Julia-McKenzie/dp/B072BJZNSL/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2CFQAW7UC9FOU&dchild=1&keywords=maggie+and+her&qid=1599926618&sprefix=maggie+and+he%2Caps%2C236&sr=8-1
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Ne1L C

Ballyboy Asks a Question

Hi,

Can anyone recommend any helpful video tutorials for AE for more advanced projects?


There is this from Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x0qcma8Tog
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Ne1L C

Yus, My Dear (1976) London Weekend Sitcom

That is a brilliant theory Inspector Sands. Had never thought of ITV’s preoccupation with the ‘unusual’ situations of the day. Hard to think of any BBC sitcoms which had those premises (perhaps they’ve been crowded-out of our collective memories by the absolute classics like Fawlty Towers, Porridge etc).


I think the "unusual situations" nature of ITV sitcoms may also play a part in the reason why they're not as well remembered as their BBC counterparts. For example "Robin's Nest" was unusual for the time (1977) and even controversial. ITV had to ask permission from the IBA to make it because the notion of an unmarried couple setting up home together was for the time so beyond the pale.

Whereas on the BBC sitcoms were more of a "neverland" nature. Last Of The Summer Wine for example seemed to take place in a "pocket parallel universe" where nearly nothing from the real world was ever discussed (although the earliest episodes with Blamire as "the third man" did have some political discussions)

Are You Being Served is another example. Even when the show started in 1972 it can claim to be already dated in its settings. Its my opinion that the best comedies are slightly "otherworldly" (and I don't mean Red Dwarf Razz ).
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Ne1L C

Yus, My Dear (1976) London Weekend Sitcom


Not at all. There's this little thing called meeting quality quotas in order to keep your licence, inherent in any PSB contract.

Beyond that - and sitcoms were very much beyond that - producing badly written, badly produced and badly acted, unfunny crap wasn't something the IBA tended to get involved with.


ITV sitcoms have in my view always paled into almost insignificance when compared to the BBC. As far as I can recall the last ITV sitcom to top the charts was Duty Free and that was at least 35 years ago.


The New Statesman still holds up too, in my opinion.


A comedy that I never got into.
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Ne1L C

Yus, My Dear (1976) London Weekend Sitcom

Murdoch turned the company into a populist dung-pile .


It's not as if I'm saying everything LWT was junk - just the alleged sitcoms.


I think this is a confused message.


Not at all. There's this little thing called meeting quality quotas in order to keep your licence, inherent in any PSB contract.

Beyond that - and sitcoms were very much beyond that - producing badly written, badly produced and badly acted, unfunny crap wasn't something the IBA tended to get involved with.


ITV sitcoms have in my view always paled into almost insignificance when compared to the BBC. As far as I can recall the last ITV sitcom to top the charts was Duty Free and that was at least 35 years ago.

I wouldn’t say that ITV sitcoms were crap per se I referred to Shelley as one example of this but it’s seems as if the received wisdom is that the BBC was the home of the best sitcoms and on the surface that seems to be correct but under the surface things are different.

Comedies such as Executive Stress certainly aren’t badly acted. Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles are fine actors. It’s just that they appeal to a different demographic.

LWT has as case if it’s own. Here is a station that effectively had to go through a “forced regeneration” to survive. When the station launched in 1968 it was as a highbrow alternative to BBC 1.

But audiences as a whole in my opinion don’t want highbrow at the weekends. They want undemanding lightweight entertainment and LWT version 1 wasn’t that. Yes it had comedy such as “We Have Ways Of Making You Laugh but it also had opera whereas BBC 1 had jukebox jury and Dr Who.

It’s that kind of track record coupled with the notion that the BBC was the home of comedy that has given ITV comedy a bad rap.

But I agree that The Bottle Boys was awful!
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Ne1L C

Yus, My Dear (1976) London Weekend Sitcom

Shelley started in the late 70s and is still watchable today.
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Ne1L C

September 11th attacks - 19 years ago

Even now 19 years on its one of the few pieces of video that still has the ability to shock.
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Ne1L C

September 11th attacks - 19 years ago

I didn’t see the attacks as they happened. I heard what had happened on bbc 5 live. It wasn’t until later that I saw the recording.
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Ne1L C

New Discovery & Murdoch News Channels?

I'm not sure how you can say it's not a financial issue.

Those who can comfortably afford a license can pay for it if they want one, those who can't should be getting the means tested benefits that would entitle them to continue to receive a free one.


Point taken. I should have said it wasn't strictly a financial issue but the psychological aspect stands.


There's no doubt there are people akin to your example, but there are many like my mum who really don't give a monkey's either way


It doesn’t cover everyone I agree my parents don’t care either but I would wager there is a lot of people who have a different view.